General Vortex Incident Discussion

[Hetland]

Does anyone else think that it sounds like there is a problem with deepswim's reg in the video? Sounds like he is having problems breathing through it at times.

I would be afraid to dive with a reg that sounded like that.

Also did not understand the Polaris missile breach by the platform before going back down for "decompression".

I also thought the ascent was way too fast. Eventually it will bite him.

If this turns out to be a hoax, misunderstanding, whatever and it turns out for a fact that he is not in the cave after all, will that soften your perception?

No.

 

[Tortuga68]

There wasn't available and refined cave diving courses available, or gear considerations back then. He was a cave diving legend, in no small part, for pioneering the courseload and gear that we use today, by trial and error

I'm not talking about not using the rule of thirds, which Sheck kindly invented for the rest of us, or using a Chlorox jug as a BC. He became a cave diving legend (and rightly so) because of what he did after he survived some really boneheaded moves in his early career

Fact remains, he did some damn stupid things and nearly (probably should have) died as a result several times. I'm not talking about the "hey this might work" trial and error stuff, I'm talking about very nearly killing himself and avoiding it only by pure luck, as evidenced by other people dying on the very same dives

Just because he did a lot of great stuff afterwards doesn't make his early exploits any less foolish

 

[Jax]

Just because he did a lot of great stuff afterwards doesn't make his early exploits any less foolish

Thank God our early exploits are generally not held against any of us!

 

[Tortuga68]

Sometimes they aren't and they should be; and sometimes it's the other way around

 

[cruiser]

If this turns out to be a hoax, misunderstanding, whatever and it turns out for a fact that he is not in the cave after all, will that soften your perception?

No, it won't soften my perception of how dangerous cave diving can be, especially without the proper training and experience.

 

[mdax]

just wow
I watched several of deepswims video's and believe he is actually serious
It's as if he has a gravitational field that attracts more people just like him

I'm not sure if i'm more impressed with the monofin snorkel, swimming through classes or "tricks" underwater...not to mention the whole cave diving component.

seriously though, you really should not swim full speed towards the surface after diving, might want to consider some more dive training and should stay completely out of caverns and caves until trained and equipped.

 

[pnw_diver]

If this turns out to be a hoax, misunderstanding, whatever and it turns out for a fact that he is not in the cave after all, will that soften your perception?

In my case, no it will not.

(Not a cave diver, nor do I intend to be.)

 

[Divedoggie]

We have courses and gear readily available to us now. Its simply retarted not to take advantage of them rather than recreate the wheel.

Can I please please use this as my tag line? Of course you will get the credit!

 

[Blue Sparkle]

So here is a question for the masses...

This incident has opened the eyes of a lot of readers to the dangers and unforgiving nature of cave diving without proper training. Many of you are seeing for the first time some example of how badly things can quickly go wrong.

If this turns out to be a hoax, misunderstanding, whatever and it turns out for a fact that he is not in the cave after all, will that soften your perception?

Not at all. But then I'm not the type to flout the rules anyway, so that may give less weight to my response.

What this thread has done for me (beyond the at-this-point-compelling mystery of it), is show me what a great community there is in cave divers, make me (more) aware of the amazing geology (if that's the right term) of that area of Florida, interest me in at least cavern diving (whereas before my thought was NooOOOOOoo way!), and make me aware of the complexities and nuances of the training (and how much there is to "not know when you don't know").

I'm looking at a move sometime in the near future, and want to take diving into consideration. That area of Florida would never even have occurred to me before; now it would be on the list of possibilities.

So, somewhat counterintuitively, although I now have more awareness and interest in the caverns/caves, and "know" more about what is involved in the training and diving, I am absolutely 0% more likely to have any less respect for the divers/caves/training than I was before. <---I hope that make sense. I worry that it comes off like I think I now "know" how to cave dive, but what I mean is that I have seen some of the complexity and reasoning behind the rules, and have a better understanding of what properly trained cave divers are doing.

Blue Sparkle

 

[Wobbegong wannabe]

If this turns out to be a hoax, misunderstanding, whatever and it turns out for a fact that he is not in the cave after all, will that soften your perception?

Not in the slightest, but I've read a fair bit about overhead diving. What I did start thinking about was the lack of emphasis on the dangers of overhead diving in both my OW and AOW courses. There was no mention of it in the OW and only a passing reference in the AOW because we were diving an artifical reef, and it was pretty much limited to 'don't go inside, that's bad'. I can see how a recreational diver could underestimate the risks, particularly if they were reckless by nature.

Just because he did a lot of great stuff afterwards doesn't make his early exploits any less foolish

Early aviation had some pretty foolish exploits as well but IMO that doesn't make the pioneers any less admirable. However, I wouldn't get into a balsa wood / fabric aircraft these days because there are far safer options available. It's a bit hard to draw the line between brave pioneer and bonehead, but to me true boneheadedness is illustrated by people who ignore available safety measures, more than people who "boldly go...". It's probably fairly subjective.